16.12.2021 - 06:28 UTC
Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) has placed a tentative order for twenty A220-300s and twenty A321-200NX(XLR)s, with a further 94 purchase options for the A220 and A320neo Family aircraft to replace its ageing fleet of B717-200s and B737-800s.
The Australian carrier said that it had selected Airbus after "a detailed review by the airline's engineering, flight operations, customer experience, network, fleet procurement and finance teams", following a Request for Proposals issued in October 2020. It also evaluated B737 MAX and E2 family aircraft.
"This was a very tough choice to make. Each option delivered on our core requirements around safety, capability and emissions reductions. But when you multiply even small benefits in areas like range or cost across this many aircraft and over the 20 years they'll be in the fleet, Airbus was the right choice as preferred tenderer," Chief Executive Alan Joyce said.
He underlined that one of the core advantages of Airbus was the flexibility related to the two types and multiple variants available to the...
05.10.2021 - 02:45 UTC
Qantas Group says it has entered the final stages of a formal tender process with aircraft and engine manufacturers for the long-term renewal of its domestic narrow-body fleet.
The Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) parent said the program will see more than 100 new aircraft enter the national carrier’s domestic fleet by 2034, renewing its seventy-five B737-800s (of which of 59 are owned with the rest leased in) and twenty B717-200s (all of which are in service with Cobham Aviation Services Australia - Airline Services) that currently form the backbone of its domestic jet operations. The airline's eighteen Fokker 100s, all of which are in service with Network Aviation, are not part of the plan although a spokeswoman did confirm to ch-aviation that they are considering "a few options".
The aircraft being considered are the B737 MAX family from Boeing, the A220 and A320neo Families from Airbus, and the E2 from Embraer.
Final decisions on preferred suppliers of aircraft and engines are expected to be made...
Editorial Comment: Updates with Qantas's official statement and commentary on Fokker 100 fleet - 05.10.2021 - 22:20 UTC
29.09.2021 - 05:20 UTC
Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) remains in talks with Boeing concerning a potential B737 MAX order although no deal has yet materialised, chief executive Ed Bastian said during an internal webinar.
"There's certainly a place for [the B737 MAX] if we can figure out how to bring them in," he was quoted by Airline Weekly.
The carrier is the only large mainline US operator with no orders for the newest generation of B737 narrowbodies, even though it has a sizeable fleet of B737NGs, comprising seventy-seven B737-800s and 141 B737-900(ER)s, according to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module. Delta also operates sixty-nine B717-200s, being by far the largest of the three remaining operators of the type globally (besides Hawaiian Airlines and Cobham Aviation Services Australia - Airline Services). Unofficial reports previously indicated Delta could leverage its B717s to secure a better B737 MAX deal from Boeing.
In late 2020, media reports indicated that Boeing had offered Delta a deal for forty white-tail B737 MAX not taken...
06.08.2021 - 06:53 UTC
US start-up Waltzing Matilda Aviation (MW, New Bedford), the production carrier for the Connect Airlines brand, has announced it has leased two DHC-8-Q400s from Chorus Aviation Capital (CAC). The aircraft are due to be delivered in September and November 2021 respectively and will enter service in the fourth quarter of 2021, WMA chief executive John Thomas confirmed to ch-aviation.
He said the aircraft would be registered as N881WM and N882WM, but were not on the US register yet.
CAC, in a statement, said the two aircraft were the last two remaining Dash 8-400s - G-EOF (msn 4216) and G-ECOH (msn 4221) - previously operated by flybe. (2002) (BE, Exeter) and repossessed by CAC in 2020. They are currently stored at Halifax, the ch-aviation fleets history module reveals. “Inclusive of the previously announced transactions with Cobham Aviation Services Australia - Airline Services (QJE, Adelaide) and Sky Alps (Bolzano), CAC has now remarketed and successfully placed all the repossessed (Flybe) Dash 8-400 aircraft,” the...
